Imitating Another without Success and Losing What Used to Be
One's Own Ability
( 邯郸学步)
Tradition has it that more than 2,ooo years ago, there lived a young man in the Shouling area of the State of Yan . As his name is not known ,we just call him Shouling young man for convenience's
sake.
Lacking confidence has made him don’t know how to behave all the time .His family members advised him to overcome this shortcoming, but he thought they put their fingers in another's pie . His relatives and nei ghbors’ sneered at him, saying that he would never be able to learn anything. As the days went by, he even began to doubt whether he should walk the way he did, for he felt more and more that his walking gestures were too clumsy and
awkward.
One day, he met some people on the road who were chatting and laughing. One of them said that people in Handan walked most gracefully. And that was just what he was most concerned about, so he hurried towards themand wanted to make further inquiries.To his surprise, when these people saw him, they stalked off laughing He could not picture to himself in what way their walking gestures were graceful, no matter how hard he racked his parents
one day.He went to Handan which was far away to learn how to
walk.
As soon as he arrived in Handan, he was dazzled to find that everything was novel.He learned from the children there how to walk; because he thought that the children's walking gestures were lively and pleasing to the eye. He learned from the old people there how to walk, because he thought the old people's walking gestures were steady .He learnd from the women there how to walk, because he thought the women' swaying walking gestures were beautiful. That being the case with him, in less than half a month he even forgot how to walk. As he had already used up his traveling expenses, he had to crawl back home.。